Title:
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Mongol invasions in Southeast Asia and their Impact on Relations between Dai-Viet and Champa (1226-1326)
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This research concerns events happening in the thirteenth and early fourteenth
centuries in Southeast Asia, when the Mongols actively and violently interfered in
southern China and Southeast Asia. The main focus will be on bilateral relations
between Dai Viet and Champa, the subjects of four consecutive attempted Mongol
conquests, from 1258 to 1288 C. E.
Under the rule of the Mongol Great Khan M6ngke and the Yuan Emperor
Kublai Khan, the Mongols invaded Dai Viet in 1258,1285 and 1287-1288 C. E., with
Champa being the main target in between, in 1283-1285 C. E. This chain of Mongol
invasions exposed a previously unknown point of entry into Dai Viet territory, to the
south of the Vietnamese border with Champa, whereas, traditionally, the threat to Dai Viet
from China has been confined to its northern border. Dai Viet's subsequent
efforts, both diplomatic and military, to secure their southern frontier broke up Viet-
Cham relations, and put Champa under Dai Viet's control for nineteen years, from
1307 to 1326 C. E.
The loss of this piece of Cham land, the former O and Lý territories, to Dai Viet
has been recorded in the Vietnamese official annals as a gift from Champa to Dai Viet,
following a marriage between a Cham king and a Vietnamese princess in 1306
C. E. Alternatively, it has been attributed to Vietnam's 'Nam Tien' policy, a term
describing a Vietnamese slow and continuing movement southward to occupy more
land. Without relevant Cham evidences to the contrary, attention has been diverted to
either the 'Nam Tien', or the 'wedding gift' theory, to interpret this loss of Cham land
and the ensuing territorial conflict between Dai Viet and Champa. In doing so, other
possible causes for the breakdown in Viet-Cham relations have been ignored. This
thesis will seek to establish that the territorial dispute and the resulting conflict that
led to the eventual demise of Champa, were direct results of the Mongols' attempted
occupation of both D4ii Vi4t and Champa in the late thirteenth century.
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